Real Madrid to hand a start to academy graduate or out-of-favour star vs Mallorca | OneFootball

Real Madrid’s defeat to Barcelona at Montjuic last night all but closed any chance the Merengues had remaining in the league title race.

The game, after all, was virtually a six-pointer and took Barcelona to the cusp of the title after Real Madrid could not salvage anything from the fixture.

The Catalans now need just two points in three games to secure the league title and snatch it from Real Madrid and can do so against Espanyol midweek.

Los Blancos, meanwhile, can only play against Mallorca and win, hoping that the Catalans lose their game.

Deeper in water

As relayed by AS(h/t Madrid Zone) in a recent report, either Jacobo Ramon or Jesus Vallejo will start alongside Raul Asencio in the team’s game against Mallorca for they simply have no options remaining.

After all, one of the key factors behind Los Blancos’ defeat last night was Real Madrid’s poor defensive depth which forced them to deploy Aurelien Tchouameni and Asencio as their starting centre-backs on the night.

A rare appearance for Vallejo? (Photo by Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)

David Alaba, Antonio Rudiger and Eder Militao were all unavailable through injury.

Heading into the game against Mallorca, however, matters only get worse for the men in white as Aurelien Tchouameni’s yellow card in El Clasico implies that he is suspended on the night.

The former made his debut in La Liga in Real Madrid’s win over Celta Vigo but was simply all over the place and looked completely out of his depth.

Vallejo, meanwhile, has not had the manager’s trust all season and has only played ten league minutes in the entire campaign.

It is far from ideal that Real Madrid head into a tricky game against Jagoba Arrasate’s side later this week with such poor depth in defence.

Given that a defeat will all but crown Barcelona champions, a lot rides on the performance of whoever steps into Tchouameni’s shoes.